20. Viper
Viper
T he word ‘dynasty’ keeps echoing in my head like a fucking curse.
Dynasty. They want to breed her like a prized mare, chain her to some Graduate psychopath and watch her produce heirs for their twisted empire.
My hands are shaking with barely contained rage as I pace Blake’s room, every muscle in my body screaming for violence.
“I’m going to find Lloyd Beacon,” I announce, my voice low and deadly. “And I’m going to tear his fucking throat out.”
“Viper—” Venetia starts, but I’m already moving towards Venetia’s toolbox.
“No.” I turn back to face her, and she must see something in my eyes because she narrows her eyes. “You want to know why that little shit is still alive? It’s because I haven’t found him yet. But that ends now.”
Rafferty nods approvingly. “Want backup?”
“I work better alone.” I’m already checking the knife collection, selecting the ones that will cause maximum pain before death. “Blake, keep working on those schematics. Raff, watch the perimeter. And you,” I look directly at Venetia, “stay exactly where you are until I get back.”
“What if I need to pee?” she asks, but there’s no heat in it. She knows what I’m feeling, knows that my protective instincts are in overdrive.
“Then you take one of them with you. Don’t make this harder than it has to be. I’m asking you to let me do what I do best.” I move to the window, studying the drone patterns overhead. “Those fuckers want to marry you off to secure their bloodline? They can explain that plan to Lloyd’s corpse.”
Without another word, I head out.
The academy feels different as I move through its corridors—emptier, more sinister. Every shadow could hide a threat, every room could contain another Graduate operative we don’t know about. But if Lloyd Beacon is here, I’ll find him.
I start with the bedrooms, moving floor by floor.
A sound makes me freeze. Footsteps, careful and deliberate.
I follow at a distance, keeping to the shadows. I catch a glimpse of my target. Lloyd Beacon, alive and clearly unconcerned that a vicious killer is watching him move around.
He’s heading towards the science wing, carrying a heavy bag. I stay back, letting him get ahead while I plan my approach.
The lab door is closed when I reach it, but I can hear movement inside. The clink of glass, the scratch of something being written. I test the handle carefully. Locked, but that’s never stopped me before.
I take a step back and kick the door in with enough force to splinter the frame. Lloyd spins around, dropping a beaker that shatters on the floor. His expression is smug and unbothered. He knew I’d come looking. He knew I’d find him.
“Hello, Viper,” he says, trying to sound calm. “I was wondering when you’d find me.”
“Were you now?” I step into the lab, noting the makeshift weapons he’s arranged on the central bench. “And here I thought you might be hiding under a rock somewhere, pissing yourself.”
He’s set up quite the operation in here. Multiple distillation apparatuses bubble away on the benches, filling the air with chemical fumes that make my eyes water. Notebooks covered in formulas lie open beside measuring equipment and bottles of various substances.
“You’re too late,” Lloyd says, gesturing towards his work. “It’s already done.”
“What’s already done?” I move closer, keeping my knife visible but not immediately threatening. I want information before I start cutting.
“The water supply. I’ve been working on this for hours.
” His voice carries a note of pride that makes my skin crawl.
“Much more elegant than the coffee. Slower acting, harder to detect. We want her alive; she’s been spared already.
She’s sacred, you know. The true bloodline, the lost princess returning to her throne.
The rest of you are just complications.”
I laugh, a harsh sound that echoes off the lab walls. “Complications? Is that what we are?”
“You’re obstacles to her destiny. She’s meant for greatness, meant to restore the old order, to take her rightful place as queen of the new world.” His eyes have taken on a fanatical gleam that makes my stomach turn. “You’re holding her back from what she was born to become.”
“And what’s that, exactly?”
“A goddess. A mother. The foundation of a dynasty that will rule for a thousand years.” He picks up a syringe filled with clear liquid, handling it reverently. “This is her future, Viper. You can’t stop it.”
“Watch me.” I take another step forward, but Lloyd raises the syringe like a weapon.
“One more step, and I’ll inject this directly into your vein, and you won’t last five minutes.”
“You’re fucking insane.”
“I’m faithful. My family has served the true bloodline for six generations.
We’ve waited for this moment, prepared for it, sacrificed for it.
” His voice rises with passion. “And you three think you can just... what? Take her away from her destiny? Make her into some common criminal instead of the queen she was born to be?”
I study his positioning, looking for an opening.
He’s between me and the water access point, but he’s also surrounded by volatile chemicals.
One wrong move and we could both go up in flames.
Before he can react, I throw myself forward, diving under the lab bench and rolling towards the wall.
Lloyd spins, trying to track my movement, but I’m already behind him.
He swings the syringe at me wildly. I dodge.
My knife finds his ribs, angled upward towards his heart. Lloyd gasps, blood frothing at his lips as he drops to his knees. He falls forward, dead.
I wrench my knife free and kick the syringe away from his hand, the glass skittering across the grimy floor. One less fanatic to worry about. But his words crawl under my skin, maggots of madness feasting on my rage.
My gaze scans the lab, a chaotic mess of bubbling flasks and chemical stink.
I don’t know fuck all about this shit, but I can see where he’s been funnelling the clear liquid into a large pipe marked with a faded water symbol.
A temporary measure. He was probably planning something more permanent.
I find what looks like the main valve for the lab’s water supply and wrench it shut with a grunt, the metal groaning in protest. It’s a stopgap, nothing more.
We’re running out of time and clean water. I grab Lloyd’s notebook, flipping through pages of frantic scrawls and chemical equations that mean nothing to me. Blake will know what to do with this.
I leave the body where it fell, a warning to any other rats still hiding in the walls. They can try to get their hands on her. But they’ll have to get through me, Blake, and Rafferty first. And we are just getting started.